


Flightless Bird, American Mouth

by savethebees



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Twilight Fusion, Anxiety Attacks, Background Relationships, Blood, Eventual Smut, I take the hammer and I fix the twilight, I'll put more specific warnings for each chapter, M/M, Medium Burn, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Vampires, Werewolves, but tbh it's more for comedy sake and can easily be skipped if that's not your cup of tea, it's better and waaaaay less racist now, my friend told me to refer to this as 'twilight inspired', yes the baseball scene is in here because i'm not an idiot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:21:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26226310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savethebees/pseuds/savethebees
Summary: About three things Hanzo was absolutely positive: First, Jesse McCree was a vampire. Second, there was a part of Jesse, and he didn’t know how dominant that part might be, that thirsted for his blood. And third, he was unconditionally, and irrevocably in love with him.
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Hanzo Shimada
Comments: 43
Kudos: 85





	1. Full Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie Mormon is an idiot and a coward, but that's why I'm here, to give the people what they need. Which is, apparently, a Twilight Overwatch AU. You're welcome.

Hanzo watched as Japan became smaller and smaller outside of the window in his first-class seat on the airplane that was taking him toward his new life.

Perhaps he should have felt something about leaving his childhood home behind. Sadness? Nostalgia? Regret? If Hanzo was being honest with himself, he felt nothing but relief. Hanamura held nothing but bad memories and a life that no longer appealed to him.

His father had been so angry when he had come to the decision to leave. He screamed at him for what felt like hours. The irony was that the more Sojiro demanded he stay, the more determined Hanzo was to leave. Sojiro hadn’t seen him off to the airport, which was fine with Hanzo. He had walked through the doors and did not look back.

There was nothing for him in Hanamura now anyway.

It still sometimes surprised Hanzo that it had been over three years since the day his brother died. It seemed so long ago, but at the same time, it felt like it had just happened yesterday.

Hanzo’s mother did not take Genji’s death well. For as long as Hanzo could remember, Murasaki had always been different. Many would call her odd and superstitious, a select few would call her crazy, Hanzo and Genji just called her ‘mother’ and didn’t question when she talked about how the Shimada elders had such ugly colors. When Genji didn’t make it, however, it was like something snapped. Her composure faltered. The carefully crafted image of the perfect Shimada crumbled along with her sanity. She began to deny her son’s death, asking why everyone was mourning. No one was able to convince her of the truth.

She became unruly, angering the elders with her spiritualistic accusations about the nature of their souls. So a year after Genji’s death, Sojiro sent her away, getting rid of Hanzo’s only remaining connection to Hanamura.

It had taken him only a couple of months to realize he no longer wanted to be associated with his father and his family anymore. It took many more months for him to remind the elders that they couldn’t, in fact, keep him there, despite what they may have thought. He rejected their bribes and promises of a life of luxury and ease. Hanzo had never been so sure of a decision in his whole life.

That was how he found himself on a plane headed to America. Murasaki had moved to a tiny town in the state of Washington, a town that just so happened to have an equally tiny university with a business program. It was perfect. He would be able to take care of his mother while also resuming the classes he had dropped out of almost four years ago.

It would be an adjustment, but it was one he was eager to make.

-

The flight was long and boring, and the movies he arbitrarily played did nothing to ease the anxiety pulling at his stomach. He wouldn’t go back on his decision, but there was still a part of him that was worried that he’d hate America. His English was spectacular, so he wasn’t worried about that, but he had heard terrible rumors about small town living in America and wondered how his mother was faring. They had spoken over the phone about his moving to be with her and she had been absolutely delighted, but he had not managed to communicate with her much other than that.

The pilot’s announcement about landing was enough to tear Hanzo out of his own thoughts to look out the window again. The sea of clouds that had been his only view up until this point had given way to the sight of mountains covered in endless evergreen forests. At least his new home was beautiful.

The plane flew lower and lower and soon a sprawling city came into view. After circling for a few minutes due to some complication that Hanzo hadn’t bothered to pay attention to, they finally landed in Seattle.

Hanzo made sure he had everything together, shoving his laptop back into his backpack before reaching up to grab his carry-on, knowing he would be one of the first people to leave the plane.

He had brought surprisingly little with him to America. Just a backpack, a carry-on, and a checked bag. He had never had very many personal belongings, and he only wanted to bring about half of his clothes. Everything else was easy to say goodbye to. In fact, it had almost been a relief to know he was bringing so little of his past life with him into his new one.

Hanzo had also changed a lot since his brother’s death, though his changes were more cosmetic than his mother’s. He had cut his hair, shaving the sides while leaving the top long enough to pull into a bun at the back of his head. He had gotten piercings, as many as he could get away with without scandalizing the elders so badly that they died from heart attacks. He just wanted to be in control of _something._ His life had spun so terribly out of hand and he had quickly discovered that making small changes to how he looked brought him a sense of peace and restored some semblance of the control he had lost.

Passing by all of the gaudy, English signs in the airport reminded him that he had found another way to regain control of his life. _He_ chose to move to America, not his father, not the elders. This was his choice, and his life, and he was finally ready to start living it again.

As he was walking toward the baggage claim, he pulled out his phone. No messages or missed calls from his mother. He hadn’t expected her to come and pick him up, but there was still a small part of him that hoped she would anyway. After calling her twice and getting nothing but an answering machine, Hanzo’s small hopes shrank even more.

Sure enough, no one was waiting for him. He sighed to himself and pressed forward. He couldn’t fault her. He _wouldn’t_ fault her. Last he heard, no one was letting her drive further than 5 miles, and with the way she was the last time he saw her, he would be surprised if she even remembered when he was supposed to arrive. So he walked through the crowd of lovers embracing and families reuniting, and felt completely and utterly alone.

That was how he found himself in the backseat of the only uber that would take him all the way to where his mother lived, in a modest house in the most ridiculous sounding town Hanzo had ever heard of.

Spoons, Washington: a city whose horridly small population exists mostly only due to the university nestled in the middle of it. He had done some preliminary research on the town when he realized he would be moving, but the only thing of note he was able to find was a nearby wildlife sanctuary that brought a handful of tourists to its nature center for children’s activities and things of the like.

He knew he would have a hard time adjusting, and the closer he got to Spoons, the more aware he became of that fact.

It was overcast. He had not seen the sun a single time on the entire 3-hour drive. There was also just so much _green_ everywhere. Tall evergreens formed thick forests on either side of the road, rising up with steep hills that slowly turned into mountains in the distance. Hanamura had its own mountains, but they were small and looked colder compared to these.

He fell asleep after the first hour and only woke again to the sight of a sign welcoming him to Spoons. He forced himself to stay awake to observe the town he had moved to. He was unimpressed with the first few buildings he saw. They were rather small and dingy. They passed a diner that was equally so and not much else. Hanzo wondered if there was anything fun to do in this damn town.

When they passed the university, Hanzo knew he must be close to his mother’s house. She lived conveniently close to the school he would be attending; it would be only a 15-minute walk.

The university matched the rest of the town: small and mostly run down. A bold, recently repainted insignia on a faded sign on the edge of campus caught his eye. It looked like an upside down ‘V’ set in the middle of a ring that was mostly silver with an orange section at the top. Next to it read the words, ‘Overwatch University’.

The sight of it all should have repulsed Hanzo, but he found himself smiling instead. Everything about it was completely at odds with the prestigious, pretentious university his father had wanted him to go to. Overwatch University almost felt rebellious in a way, even though he had already committed the biggest act of rebellion by leaving his family behind.

Finally, the driver pulled up to the address Hanzo had given him. He climbed out of the car and gathered his stuff before leaving the driver with a more than generous tip for bringing him such a long way. He hadn’t been completely cut off, so he still had his family’s money to spend.

With a quick wave, the driver pulled away, leaving Hanzo alone to drag his suitcases up to the door.

He wasted no time in ringing the doorbell. It had been so long since he had seen his mother and he was anxious to be with her again.

But no one came to the door.

He rang the doorbell again, followed by three sharp knocks. When no one answered still, he groaned and let his head fall forward to rest against the door. In a last-ditch effort, he turned the handle to see if it was unlocked. To his shock, it gave, allowing him to push it open. Did his mother always keep her door unlocked? He wondered how she had never been robbed, or more worryingly, if she had been and he never knew about it. Either way, he was glad to be moving in to take care of her.

“Hello? Mother?” He called out as he entered the house. He didn’t have to look too hard for her, however, as she was on the floor in the front room.

She appeared to be kneeling in front of a radio of some sort, having not noticed her son enter the house at all. One of her ears was directed toward the speaker of the radio while she held what looked like a handmade, cone-shaped talisman to her other ear. Stations and static filtered through the radio as she searched for… something. Hanzo could also smell smoke and assumed she had sage burning in the next room.

He stepped closer and tried to get her attention again. “Mother, what are you-?”

“Shh!” She shushed him sharply, as if angry at his interrupting, but she finally looked up at him and her face morphed into one of absolute joy as she realized who had walked into her house. “Hanzo!” She leaped up and wrapped him in a tight hug. As she did so, Hanzo noticed that her cheeks were gaunt, and that her hair and clothes were in complete disarray. The only part of her that seemed truly, deeply alive were her eyes. They shone with the same mischievousness and sincerity that he had known his whole life. He was glad to know that that hadn’t faded, at least.

“It is good to see you again,” he said as he returned the hug, drawing her close to his chest.

She pulled back with a smile. “You are just in time! I am searching for the dark wavelengths. Would you like to join me?”

“The dark wavelengths?” Hanzo had no idea what those were, or if they even existed. He somehow doubted they did. “I’m actually quite tired from my travels, so I think I will leave that up to you.”

“Ah, okay! Let me show you your room so you can sleep.” She stepped away and headed for the stairs.

He followed, but stopped short when Murasaki tiptoed onto the first step before carefully placing her foot on a specific spot on the next step, and then the next, making the trip up last three times as long as it should have. Hanzo followed behind, forced to take the steps just as slowly. Toward the top, she stopped completely and turned toward her son.

“Don’t step on this one.” She was pointing to the third step from the top.

“What? Why?”

She didn’t offer any explanation, just hopped over the step and kept going, forgetting to look and make sure Hanzo followed her instructions. He stared at the step and decided it wouldn’t hurt to heed her warning and skipped over it.

There were three doors in the small upstairs hallway, one of which was open, so Hanzo assumed that one was his. Murasaki had walked to one of the closed doors, informing him that it was the bathroom for upstairs.

He nodded, taking note of it, before heading toward the room with the open door.

“Not that one!” Hanzo stopped short at his mother’s urgent words. “That one is Genji’s room, for when he comes back.”

The look in her eyes was deathly sincere. His heart broke at the thought of his brother never returning as his mother seemed to think he would, but he was too tired to correct her.

She guided him to the other door in the hall, opening it and gesturing inside. “This one is your room!”

It was a plain looking room, but it was spacious enough, with a large bed pushed against a wall. An empty dresser and bookshelf were against a different wall, waiting to be filled with whatever Hanzo would accumulate here.

“It is perfect, thank you,” he said, pulling his bags into the room and setting them down, already deciding he was too tired to unpack that night. He turned to look back at his mother’s excited face. She looked so thrilled that he was here, and it brought a small smile to his lips. Her gaunt cheeks still bothered him, though. “Have you eaten yet?”

She blinked and turned away slightly, as if trying to remember, but then she gasped and turned to run back downstairs. “I forgot!”

Hanzo raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant when the burning smell hit his nose again. _Ah_. That hadn’t been sage.

He rushed to follow after her, stepping into the kitchen just as she opened the oven. Smoke poured into the room and the smoke detectors went off immediately. Hanzo coughed and waved his hand in front of his face before he went to the small window above the sink and opened it.

Murasaki looked at the charred pan in her hands with disappointment. “Not again.”

“Again?” Hanzo didn’t want to think about how often this happened. “It’s okay, mother. We can just order something. How does that sound?”

The pan was placed on top of the stove to let it cool. An attempt to save it would be made once it was safe to actually touch it.

“That sounds like a good idea.”

-

“You will be alright while I’m at classes, right?” Hanzo rushed around the kitchen, leaving sticky notes on almost every surface as reminders for his mother. Things like, ‘don’t forget to turn off the stove’ and ‘eat this sandwich @ noon for lunch’.

Murasaki watched him, softly shaking her head. “I am not _completely_ incompetent, you know. I have managed to take care of myself thus far. I’m just a little… forgetful at times.”

“I know, which is why these are here to remind you.”

She pulled his hands away from writing another note and brought them to her chest. “I will be alright, Hanzo. Go, get to class or you’ll be late.”

He sighed and pressed a light kiss to her forehead, realizing she was right. “Fine, I’m off then. I will see you later.” He let go of her hands and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where his backpack was waiting by the door.

“Bye! Have a great first day!” She waved to him as he left, closing the door behind him and being sure to lock it with the key he had miraculously found in one of the kitchen drawers.

The walk to campus was easy, and surprisingly pleasant. The sky was overcast, again, and there wasn’t much to see except for more houses and trees, but it was a nice walk with hardly any hills, which he thought was surprising with the surrounding mountains.

He hadn’t left Hanamura in time to go to orientation, so he was woefully lost as soon as he stepped on campus. He pulled his phone out to look at a map and tried to cross reference it with his schedule, looking for the name of the building of his first class. Unfortunately, this meant he wasn’t paying the closest attention to where he was going and ran almost face first into another student.

“Hey! Watch it,” snapped a clipped voice. The student it belonged to was a stunning woman with long black hair and, Hanzo noticed, only one arm.

“My apologies,” he muttered, beginning to turn away when he thought better of it. “Do you know where Petras Hall is?”

The student looked him up and down, as if judging him in a single glance. She must have decided to take pity on him because she pointed him in the right direction. “It is just past this building here. Take a left at the union.” That was all she offered before walking off to her own class.

“Thank you,” he called after her before following her directions.

It was only after walking away that he processed that the woman had spoken with an accent, which intrigued him. Spoons was so small that he figured he would be the only foreign student at the university. He must have assumed incorrectly.

Walking into his first class proved him even more wrong. There were students from all over the world filling the tiny auditorium, chittering away in a myriad of different languages. He was shocked to say the least, but not displeased by it.

He took his seat and took a sweeping glance around the room. Everyone was so much younger than him. He hated having to take introductory classes with freshmen. Being 23 and surrounded by 18-year-olds made him feel out of place, and older than he should have felt, especially since he _just_ turned 23 and wasn’t even a full 5 years older than the students around him.

The class itself wasn’t bad. The TA already seemed exhausted even though it was the first day of classes, and, honestly, Hanzo couldn’t blame her, especially since the same student kept interjecting their own thoughts into everything the TA said.

By the time the class let out, it was already lunch time. Hanzo was grateful he didn’t have any morning classes. It gave him more time to make sure his mother didn’t burn down the house making breakfast.

He had an hour before his next class, so he decided to check out the student union to try and get some lunch, wondering what all they had available.

What they had available turned out to be three options of chain fast food restaurants, stationed at different points along the outside of the open seating area of the union and a small store selling prepackaged sandwiches and cups of fruit. Hanzo had opted for the latter, not feeling hungry enough to get a full meal.

He picked an empty table in the seating area and sat down with his sandwich and cup of honeydew melon, immediately feeling the stares of at least 30 people.

How was it that almost everyone seemed to know each other? Surely not everyone had grown up in Spoons, yet it seemed like everyone knew everyone else. Everyone except for Hanzo that is.

There was a particular group of three girls watching as he took tentative bites from his sandwich. Well, one of the three girls kept looking at him, while the other two seemed to be chastising her. One of which, he noticed, was the student from earlier that helped give him directions.

Hanzo turned away from them and tried to focus on his phone. Not five minutes later, however, someone practically threw themselves down into the seat across from him. Glancing up from his phone, he saw it was the girl who had been staring at him.

“Can I help you?”

“Not really, I mostly just wanted to introduce myself to you. You’re not from around here, are you?”

Hanzo had to hold back an eye roll from the cliché. “No. I am not. I moved here just a few days ago.”

“I knew it!” She pumped her fist in the air and gestured toward the table where the other two girls were watching, calling them over. “My name’s Fareeha, it’s nice to meet you. This here is my girlfriend, Angela, and my friend Satya.”

The blonde, who must have been Angela, gave a small wave, looking apologetic for the actions of her girlfriend before sitting down next to her. Satya sat across from her, next to Hanzo.

“We have met, actually,” she said in the same cool, clipped tone as earlier.

“And you didn’t think you should tell me? That whole time we were talking about him?”

“I gave him directions. We didn’t speak further than that.”

Angela turned toward Hanzo then, interrupting her friends’ argument. “And what is your name?”

“Hanzo Shimada.” He winced inwardly, already preparing himself for the looks of fear that always accompanied his family’s name.

“Shimada?” Fareeha asked. “Like Miss Murasaki? Are you two related?”

Well that hadn’t been the familial association he had been expecting, but it was definitely welcome.

“Yes, she is my mother.”

All three women broke out into bright smiles.

“Oh my god, she’s the best.”

“I helped reach a can of beans for her at the store and she gave me a homemade charm.”

“She told me my soul looked beautiful and no other compliment has lived up to it.”

Hanzo found himself smiling along in tandem. He wasn’t used to his name being associated with good things, or for people to talk about his mother in a positive light. It was a marvelous change.

“So, what brings you to Overwatch University?” Angela asks him. “What’s your major?”

“Business. I am here because my mother is here. I am afraid there isn’t any other reason. No offense to your town, but it would not be my first choice.”

“Were it not for the Overwatch program, we wouldn’t be here either. No offense taken,” Satya said, crossing her legs.

“The Overwatch program?” Hanzo didn’t remember reading about anything like that during his research into this town and university.

“It’s run through the wildlife sanctuary,” Fareeha explained. “I think it and the university are run by the same dude, which is why they have the same name. But yeah, there’s a scholarship run through the wildlife sanctuary where you work there and go to school here. Full ride. It’s nice. World renowned, too.”

“Ah, that explains why there seem to be more foreign students than American. So then, are you three natural science majors?”

“Well, I am. I want to work at the wildlife sanctuary as a career, protecting the wildlife and shit like that. But Satya’s an architect major and Angie’s a bio major. She wants to go to med school eventually.”

Hanzo looked between Satya and Angela in confusion. “You got a wildlife scholarship for those degrees?”

Matching sheepish grins formed on the women’s faces as they looked from one to another, as if trying to come up with an explanation. In the end, it was Angela who finally offered one.

“You would be surprised at the fields this scholarship covers and how many different jobs there are on the sanctuary. There is something for everyone.”

The other two seemed to heave a sigh of relief at her explanation, but Hanzo didn’t have the opportunity think too hard on it.

“So what classes do you have this semester?” Fareeha asked. “We’re all seniors so we’ve probably had almost every professor on campus and we can give you all the tips and tricks.”

Hanzo pulled up his schedule on his phone and passed it across the table.

“Alright, let’s see what we got. Bio with Dr. Winston. Angie loves him, he’s a big sweetie, just don’t let him get off track. Comp1 with Torbjorn. Definitely try and get him off track, it’s the only way to make his classes bearable. Survey of American History with- ah.” Fareeha almost seemed to bristle.

Hanzo raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Is Reyes that bad?”

“He is very strict,” Satya offered with an uncomfortable look on her face. “And he is not a very good person either.”

“Ah, I see.” So Hanzo should be worried.

“He is not _that_ bad,” Angela scolded.

“He is too.” Fareeha gave Hanzo’s phone back to him. “And your class is in 15 minutes. If I were you, I’d start heading there now.”

Hanzo grabbed his phone back and started to gather his things, balling up his napkin and shoving it in his empty fruit cup. “Why? I thought Liao Hall was the next building over.”

“It is, but it’s Reyes. Don’t be late.”

“Now you’re just scaring him.” Angela rolled her eyes and gave Hanzo an apologetic look. “Just do your work and you will be fine.”

“Right.” Armed with the somewhat worrying, somewhat confusing advice from his new acquaintances, he bid them goodbye and headed off to class. He decided not to take the risk of being late, and walked as quickly as his dignity would allow.

Walking into the lecture hall, 5 minutes later, he noticed he was not the first one to get there early. About half of the small auditorium had already been filled.

He slid into a seat and pulled his phone out again, ready to pass the rest of the 10 minutes until class would start. However, soon after he had done so, the door to the lecture hall burst open and a rather large man wearing a beanie and an intense scowl walked in, taking his place behind the desk set up at the front of the room. He could have been no one other than Professor Reyes, Hanzo figured.

The atmosphere in the room shifted majorly. Hanzo didn’t know what had happened, but the room fell deathly silent, and many of the students around him sneered at the man. He could have sworn he even heard some of them growling.

The silence stretched out for much too long to be comfortable. Reyes pulled a laptop out of the bag he had carried in and set it up on the desk, plugging it in to various wires. Some of the students resumed conversation, but it was in hissed whispers, the kind that are only used to pass scathing comments. Hanzo put his phone away, uncomfortable with the energy that had been created in the auditorium.

“Cut that shit out.” Professor Reyes’ voice cut through the tension in the room like a hot knife. He looked up from where he had finished messing with his laptop and stared down the entire room. “Whatever you heard about me, or whatever the fuck you assume about me, forget about it. You’re not here to like me, you’re here to learn about history. So I’m going to teach you, you’re going to do your work, and we’re not going to have a problem. Got it?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. He picked up a remote and pointed it towards the ceiling, resulting in an overhead beep. The projector turned on and Reyes began lecturing without any further preamble, taking half the class to go over the syllabus before diving right into the first topic.

Hanzo had been expecting an insanely dense, strict syllabus outlining every rule Reyes expected him to follow, but in actuality it mostly just gave assignment dates. There wasn’t even an attendance policy, which very much shocked him after what Fareeha had said about him.

When the class was over, Hanzo was more confused than ever as to how he was supposed to feel about the professor. He didn’t think Reyes was that bad at all, but everyone else around him seemed to disagree. He ended up just shrugging it off and gathering his things.

He had one more class that day: his intro to business class. The only expectation he had for that class came from the half a semester he had completed back in Hanamura before he had dropped out.

On his way out of Liao Hall, he passed by a little coffee stand, and as soon as the smell hit his nose, nothing in the world sounded better than a large cup of coffee. If he was being honest with himself, he was still a little jet lagged and he hadn’t realized just how much it was affecting him until he thought about coffee.

The campus was small enough that there was definitely time to get some coffee before heading to his next class. He had never felt more relieved than when feeling the warmth from the cup in his hands. The weather outside was incredibly dreary. It looked like a light sprinkle of rain had just begun to trickle down, but Hanzo just took sips of his drink and found it hard to care. It was sweet, just how he liked it.

He stepped outside to start walking in the direction he believed his next class to be in when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

Professor Reyes was leaning against the wall of Liao Hall, arms crossed and an impassive look on his face as a student was struggling against the hold of two of his friends, trying to get at him. Hanzo was too far away to hear any of the words being said, but he could hear the tone, and it was nasty, like the student was threatening him. Reyes didn’t appear to be bothered by it at all, snapping something back at him, jerking his head to the side, as if motioning for the student to get lost.

The student only struggled against his friends’ hold more and Hanzo felt like he should do something. He took a step toward the confrontation but stopped when it appeared that someone had beat him to it.

An honest-to-god cowboy with an expensive looking prosthetic for a left arm stood between the student and the professor, saying something in a low voice and glaring at them.

The students backed off and Hanzo felt relief wash through him, realizing he wouldn’t have to do anything after all. The situation looked handled, so he started back toward his next class, left to wonder what the hell that student’s problem was, and why Reyes seemed to act almost as if this was a regular occurrence for him.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he forgot he didn’t know where he was going. By the time he realized it, however, the rain had picked up, falling in fat drops and forcing him to take cover, chugging his coffee under a faded awning.

After he was done, he continued in the direction he had been going, throwing his coffee cup away in a nearby trashcan and practically speed walking to get out of the rain. When he still couldn’t find the building he needed after 10 minutes of walking, he realized he was lost.

“This campus is tiny, how the fuck-” he muttered to himself as he slipped into the building he had ended up in front of so he could pull his phone out and look at his map. A glance at the time told him that not only was he lost, but he was also late.

He continued cursing to himself, figuring out he had walked right passed the building he needed without even realizing it, and got back on track, jogging through the rain to get where he needed to go.

Finally, he walked into the right classroom. He was wet and he was late, but he was there. He tried to ignore all of the eyes on him as he scoped out an empty seat. The only one he could see was next to… the cowboy he had seen earlier? The rest of the students had quickly turned their focus back to the professor, interest in Hanzo almost immediately lost, but the cowboy absolutely _glared_ at him.

Gritting his teeth and trying to ignore his venomous stare, Hanzo sat next to him. The cowboy had the _gall_ to wrinkle his nose and move his chair as far away from him as possible. Incredibly offended, Hanzo tried to turn his hurt into anger toward the other man, shooting him his own glare before turning and purposefully staring straight ahead, quickly pulling out his materials so he could take notes, hoping he hadn’t missed too much.

The cowboy kept staring at him. Hanzo could feel his eyes. It was unnerving, to say the least. He had no idea what this guy’s problem was. Why was everyone at Overwatch University so weird? Was the guy racist? The cowboy was clearly not white and the whole university was filled with people from all over the world and he didn’t seem to have a problem with them, so that didn’t make sense. Was it Hanzo? Did he smell bad? In a quick, subtle move, he was able to determine that, no, he did _not_ smell bad. Maybe Americans were just that weird.

Whatever the cowboy’s problem was, it made it very hard to concentrate on what the professor was saying about the syllabus.

When the class was coming to a close and the professor was instructing them on what all he wanted done by the next class period, the cowboy snatched up his bag, pushed his seat back, and quickly stormed out of the room, not even bothering to hear what the professor had to say.

Hanzo watched him leave before heaving a quiet sigh of relief. On Wednesday, he would have to remember to get to class earlier so he wouldn’t have to sit next to him.

By the time he left, the rain had thankfully stopped. He would have hated to make the walk back to his mother’s house if it hadn’t. Making a mental note to pack an umbrella for the next day, Hanzo’s mind drifted back to all he had seen that day as he walked in silence.

He hadn’t expected his first day to be filled with so much excitement. At least speaking with Fareeha, Angela, and Staya was pleasant.

But no matter what he tried to think about, his mind kept going back to that rude cowboy. Hanzo decided he didn’t ever want to know what the man’s problem was. He’d be happier not knowing and never speaking to him.

As he unlocked the door to his home, Hanzo had one last thought about the strange cowboy: when he had glared at Hanzo, his eyes were completely black.

-

“So? How was it?”

Hanzo gave an inquisitive hum, looking up at his mother as the two ate dinner. She was looking at him with an expectant gaze.

“How was what?”

“Your first day of classes, silly!”

“Ah.” When he had gotten home, he found Murasaki making some strange concoction over the fire in their fireplace and had been given an hour-long explanation of what exactly it was and what it did, so he hadn’t had the chance to talk about his strange experience at college. “It was fine. I met some people.”

“Oh? Nice people?”

“I suppose they were nice, yes.” He paused as he took a bite of food. “They said they knew you.”

Murasaki nodded. “I am sure you’ve noticed how small this town is. It is very hard to not have run into almost everyone living here. I am glad you are already making friends here.”

“I would not consider them friends, but they were nice to talk to.” They ate in silence for a few more moments before Hanzo had an idea. “You said you have encountered everyone who lives here, yes?”

She gave him a curious look. “More or less. Why?”

“Have you ever met a one-armed cowboy?”

Murasaki’s movements stuttered until she eventually put her fork down, staring blankly at her food. He had not been expecting such a reaction.

“Is he bad?” He asked her, wondering if maybe the cowboy had acted the way he had due to an encounter he had with his mother.

“No, no,” she said softly. “He is not bad.”

“So you _have_ met him before?”

“No. I have not.”

“Then how do you know-”

He was cut off with a gentle laugh coming from his mother. “There are strange things that happen here in this town, Hanzo. It is best if you do not question them, and simply go where they take you.”

He opened his mouth to respond, having been left with more questions and still no answers, but he decided against it, realizing he wouldn’t be getting those answers tonight.

America was so damn weird.


	2. Eyes On Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do any of you know the man in the cowboy hat? That is not very descriptive, I know, but it’s a small campus and you three seem to know everybody, so I figured it was not too impossible of a question.”
> 
> Satya, Fareeha, and Angela, who he had accidentally interrupted, all winced before turning to look at each other, asking silent questions, their expressions all becoming blank, as if they were trying – and failing – to keep neutral. Hanzo wondered why everyone always reacted so strangely whenever he brought the man up.
> 
> “You mean Jesse McCree?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, hello. I did not forget about this fic, I promise. Next chapter is when things start popping off so I hope y'all stick around to read it. Stay safe out there, kids.

Much to Hanzo’s relief, his Tuesday classes were vastly less eventful.

He didn’t see the cowboy, he didn’t see any students threatening professors, he didn’t even see the three women from the day before. He simply went through the motions of his schedule and was home before 2:00.

Having the afternoon off and no homework yet, Hanzo decided it would be a good opportunity to try and fill some of the empty cabinets he had found in the kitchen. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil and started to make a list of everything he could think of that they needed. He had no clue if he could get the same stuff in America as he did in Japan, but he figured he would soon find out.

Satisfied with his list, he stepped out into the living room where Murasaki was sitting in the middle of the carpet. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was moving with quick, subtle twitches, as if she was muttering something under her breath.

Hanzo cleared his throat to announce his presence without startling her. “I’m going to the store. Is there anything you need?”

She blinked her eyes open and furrowed her brow, looking around for a moment, as if disoriented, before landing on her son. “Do I… What?”

“Do you need anything from the store?” He had quickly learned that the key to living with his mother was patience, so he was more than happy to repeat his question.

“Oh, yes.” She closed her eyes again, as if concentrating on remembering what she needed. “I need toothpaste, some more carrots, and get some of those candies that Genji likes. What were they called?”

“The sour ones? I don’t think they’ll have those here but I can look, I guess.” He wondered when his mother had acquired a taste for sour candies, but he didn’t question it. He added her requests to his list.

“They don’t have the exact ones, no, but they have something close here, but I can’t remember what it’s called.” Her eyebrows pinched together again as she tried to remember. “It’s in a pink package I think? Oh, just go by the pictures and find the thing that’s closest.”

“Alright, I’ll do my best. I’ll be back soon, then.” He slipped his shoes on and grabbed some bags he had found in the laundry room, heading out to where his phone told him to go.

-

It took about an hour to walk to the store, grab what he needed, and carry the groceries back. Most of his time at the store was spent mulling over the candy selection, trying to figure out which candy his mother had been talking about. He ultimately settled on a colorful bag that boasted the sourness of the candies inside. They looked close enough to what his brother used to like, and if he had stayed in that candy aisle any longer, he would have lost it.

Murasaki was no longer in the living room when he came back. She wasn’t in the kitchen either when he went there to unload the groceries. It was only when he went to put the bags away that he found her, moving clothes from the washing machine into the dryer, humming softly to herself.

“I put your candy on the table,” he told her, reaching above her to put the bags up.

“Oh, you can put them in Genji’s room,” she said casually, bending out of the way slightly for Hanzo.

That made him pause. “Why in Genji’s room?”

“Well for Genji, of course. So that he can have his favorite candy when he comes back.”

Hanzo closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, trying not to get upset with his mother. He knew this was going to be something he would have to deal with when he moved, he _knew_ , but that didn’t make it easy. Her denial was still very frustrating when he had already gone through the worst of his grieving.

“Okay.” He found it best to not argue and to just do what she asked. It wouldn’t harm anyone to place a bag of candy in an empty room. He’d just eat it when she wasn’t looking.

“Thank you, dear.” She gave him a light kiss on the cheek and resumed doing the laundry.

With a sigh, he turned and made his way back up to his room, stopping by ‘Genji’s Room’ to toss the bag of candy on the untouched bed before moving on without a second though.

-

The next day, he was able to find his first class without any trouble, though he did see Satya along his way. She offered him a small wave which he returned in kind, wondering if she would be in the student union with the other two during lunch time like she had been two days ago. It may have been a foolish thought, but he almost hoped that maybe this would be his opportunity to establish some sort of routine in his new home.

He could see himself becoming friends with the three women and more than slightly hoped that they felt the same way.

When he saw the three of them at a table as he was getting lunch, he decided to take his chances. He didn’t think he’d have a better shot at making friends, so he took a deep breath to steady himself before walking up to them and asking if he could join.

They greeted him with smiles that were a lot warmer than what he was used to and it almost made him turn around and go sit by himself, but Fareeha grabbed his wrist and pulled him down into the empty seat and flawlessly included him into their conversation. He didn’t have much to offer to the topic at hand, but he was happy to just sit among company and let the other three talk around him.

The strange events that Spoons seemed to curate didn’t start again until he walked into his into to American History class.

When professor Reyes walked into the lecture hall, Hanzo felt the temperature in the room drop significantly. The other students seemed to have noticed the change as well, falling silent just as they had on Monday, but for an entirely different reason.

Reyes stormed to the desk in the middle of the room in three strides before slamming down his backpack and shooting a death glare so intense that it could shatter glass directly at Hanzo. Caught completely off guard by the action, Hanzo let out an audible gasp and felt his stomach drop. He had no idea what he did to warrant such a look and his mind raced trying to figure out _something_ that he could have done.

Even after class had begun, Reyes continued to shoot him threatening looks whenever he wasn’t gesturing toward the lecture slides. Hanzo couldn’t process a single word that was being said, too horrified at what he could have done and what was surely yet to come. Would Reyes fail him before the semester had even gotten started?

The sweet relief that came with the end of Reyes’ lecture forced Hanzo to finally take a deep breath. He hadn’t realized he had been low-key panicking for the last 50 minutes and he reached a hand up to rub at his aching chest.

Reyes must have left while he was putting his notebook back in his backpack, because when he looked back up, the professor was gone. With a sigh – half in relief, half in residual terror – he rushed out of the room, desperate for the fresh air of outside.

As he walked to his third and final class for the day, there was a nagging thought at the back of his mind that Reyes’ reaction was related to the cowboy’s actions.

_Oh god._

What if he had to sit next to that man again? He was going to be on time this time, so there should be plenty of open seating, but the fear was still there.

When he stepped into the classroom, he took a cursory look around and was happy to note that the cowboy hadn’t showed up yet. He chose a seat toward the back of the class and idly scrolled through social media on his phone, eyes flicking up to the door every time someone entered, wanting to know when _he_ would get here.

But the class started and he still hadn’t arrived. Not that Hanzo was complaining of course. He was able to actually focus on the class this time.

About halfway through the class, the cowboy still hadn’t shown up and Hanzo came to the conclusion that he had dropped the class. Had he been the reason why he dropped? That seemed ridiculous. He must have just decided that business wasn’t for him.

Blinking rapidly a couple of times, Hanzo cleared his head of thoughts of the strange man and returned his focus to the class.

-

Hanzo managed to keep his mind off of the one-armed cowboy all the way up until Friday afternoon, when he was faced with having to go back to Reyes’ class. A thousand fears flashed through his head in the span of roughly 5 seconds: would Professor Reyes still be angry at Hanzo for no discernable reason? What if the man from his business had actually just skipped? What if he decided to suddenly come back?

Hanzo chastised himself for his thoughts. It was all so ridiculous. What did he care?

“Do any of you know the man in the cowboy hat? That is not very descriptive, I know, but it’s a small campus and you three seem to know everybody, so I figured it was not too impossible of a question.”

Apparently he cared at least a little bit.

Satya, Fareeha, and Angela, who he had accidentally interrupted, all winced before turning to look at each other, asking silent questions, their expressions all becoming blank, as if they were trying – and failing – to keep neutral. Hanzo wondered why everyone always reacted so strangely whenever he brought the man up.

“You mean Jesse McCree?” Angela asked him, a slight tilt to her head.

Satya rolled her eyes. “There aren’t any other people who willingly wear a cowboy hat on a daily basis, of course he means Jesse.” She directed her next questions at Hanzo. “Brown hair? Bad facial hair? Prosthetic arm? Red cape thing?”

He nodded. “Yes. You know him?”

“In a way,” she said vaguely. “He’s the foster son of Professor Reyes and Dr. O’Deorain. When you’re the son of two big names in a small town like this, it’s kind of hard to _not_ know him.”

“You say that, but has anyone ever seen their _other_ kid?” Fareeha stabbed her fork in Satya’s direction for emphasis, which was very clearly not appreciated by the other woman.

She scoffed. “Really, Fareeha, I didn’t take you as one who was easily taken by conspiracies. They do not have another child.”

“Yes they do! They just homeschool them so no one has ever seen them.”

“If they had another child, don’t you think we would have heard about it?” She gave Fareeha a pointed stare, as if asking her to pick up on the context of what she was saying.

“I’m telling you, I’m pretty sure they have another kid! I think I saw them once but it was only a glance so I couldn’t tell you what they look like or anything.”

“We can talk about this later,” Angela finally interjected, cutting the other two off and offing Hanzo an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Hanzo. Was there something else you were wanting to know?”

He wasn’t quite sure how to continue from there, but there was one thing that he had been curious about since Satya had first mentioned it. “I, uh, I had no idea Reyes was married.” He seemed so cold to Hanzo that even the thought of him having a spouse was strange.

The three women snickered, the thought apparently being just as funny to them, the tension from the previous conversation completely gone.

Angela cleared her throat to be rid of her giggles enough to speak. “Oh he’s not, and he will be the first to tell you. He and the doctor live together, but quite frankly, I think they hate each other.”

“They’re the two gayest motherfuckers I have ever seen!” Fareeha tried to say through her growing laughter. “Like have you _seen_ Dr. O’Deorain? If she’s not a lesbian, I’ll eat my shoe.”

“If they hate each other, then why do they live together and have a son?” Hanzo was more confused than ever.

“From what I’ve seen, he’s mostly Reyes’ ward.” Satya had come down from her cool laughter well before the other two and had resumed taking small bites of her lunch. “I don’t think I have ever seen Dr. O’Deorain have a motherly interaction with him. As for why they live together, I believe they are… _old friends_.” She smirked as she stressed the last two words like it was a joke, which sent the other two back into fits of giggles. Hanzo had no idea what was going on.

“Yeah I think they go… _way back_.” Fareeha looked proud of herself at her joke.

“Even though they _suck_ the life force out of each other.” Angela joined in on the joke that only the three of them got.

“Right,” Hanzo said, trying not to sigh and roll his eyes. “Well thank you for the information on Jesse. I’m glad I finally have a name to put to his ridiculous face.”

“He hasn’t tried to talk to you, has he?” Suddenly dead serious, the look Fareeha gave him as she asked her question almost caught him off-guard.

The question itself had him biting his tongue to keep from laughing. “Quite the opposite. I had one class with him and apparently repulsed him so much that he dropped the class.”

“Good. You should stay away from him.”

“I don’t think avoiding him will be a problem. I don’t have any other classes with him and evading him on campus will be easy enough.”

Fareeha nodded. “Okay good.”

Hanzo was mostly just glad that he had an explanation as to why Reyes had been glaring at him so much, and as he walked to his class after lunch, he was relieved to know that the professor would probably get over it real soon. After all, he just had the one encounter with his son.

When Jesse failed to be in his class once again, confirming Hanzo’s suspicions that he had dropped the class, he was finally able to relax. Of all the strange things Spoons threw at him, he was glad he could mark at least one off of the list.

-

By now Hanzo should have known better than to make those types of conclusions in a town like this.

When he walked into his business class the next week, fully confident that Jesse McCree would not be there, he was surprised to find the cowboy sitting right next to where Hanzo usually sat.

He froze, blinking and raising an eyebrow in shock. It was then that Jesse noticed him and Hanzo braced himself for the look of disgust he was sure he was going to get. He partially considered turning around and skipping the class for the day. But then Jesse smiled, warm and bright, and gestured for Hanzo to come and sit next to him. 

Motivated mostly by curiosity and surprise, Hanzo went and sat next to him without thinking twice.

“Howdy.” Hanzo didn’t know exactly what he expected Jesse to sound like, but the southern drawl seemed about right. Besides, it really drove home the cowboy aesthetic. He tipped his hat and everything. “Should probably introduce myself. Name’s Jesse McCree, and before we get any further, I just wanted to say that I’m real sorry ‘bout the way I acted the other day. Wasn’t right of me to be all prickly like that.”

Hanzo was ashamed to say that low timbre of Jesse’s voice, combined with the easy smile made him _immediately_ forget he was supposed to avoid this man. He also noticed that, up close, Jesse was actually much more handsome than he had initially thought.

“I do feel as though I am owed an explanation for that,” he replied, trying to keep his expression impassive. He didn’t want to completely forgive Jesse just yet. “Especially considering how your father acted towards me afterwards.”

Jesse groaned and ran a hand down his face. “Goddammit, Gabe. I told him not to- what all did he do to you?” His eyes were full of worry when they landed back on Hanzo and suddenly Hanzo felt ashamed that he made him feel bad.

“He just glared at me is all. Don’t worry about it. As long as he does not change my grades based on his personal bias, I do not care.” He did care. No one wants to receive death glares every time they walk into a class, but he didn’t want to make Jesse feel any worse.

“He won’t, I promise. And if he does, I’ll kick his ass for you.”

Jesse McCree was such a mystery. One minute he was acting like he would rather die than be near Hanzo, the next, he’s offering to defend him against his own father.

“That won’t be necessary, but thank you.”

“So, care to tell me your name, darlin’?” Jesse propped his head up with the fist of his prosthetic, his elbow resting on the desk. He looked so easygoing, Hanzo could hardly believe this was the same man who almost threw up at his mere presence last week.

“My name is Hanzo.”

“Hanzo? Hanzo Shimada?” Jesse’s smile dropped and his eyes widened in surprise. At the same time, his face slipped in his shock, comically crashing down onto the desk before he quickly shook it off, sitting up straight in his chair and staring at him.

Hanzo stifled a laugh at Jesse’s antics, but he also couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He thought he and Jesse were getting along. Now, something about his name was about to ruin all of that.

“Yes. You know my mother, I’m assuming?”

“Not exactly, no. I just… am familiar with the stories.” Jesse coughed to try and cover how nervous he suddenly became.

“I am tired of this,” Hanzo said, rolling his eyes. “If you are going to hate me based on something that is out of my control, then just do so, but make up your mind.. I don’t want to play this game of whether or not you can stand to be around me.”

Jesse’s expression softened as he gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, darlin’. I didn’t mean to make you think I hate you. I was just shocked, is all. Can I make it up to you? How ‘bout I buy you some coffee after class.”

This man was giving Hanzo serious whiplash.

“It is a good thing you are handsome enough to make me consider your offer.” Now he was flirting back? Hanzo did not usually flirt, but something about this strange man seemed to pull the unexpected out of the world around him, like a magnet for bizarre circumstance.

“Handsome? Aw shucks, well that’s mighty sweet comin’ from such a pretty fella as yourself”

He opened his mouth to answer, but the professor interrupted with the start of class. Jesse gave him one last look, shooting him a wink, before turning toward the front of the room to listen to the professor.

Hanzo couldn’t help but notice that Jesse’s eyes were now gold.

-

After class, Jesse made good on his promise. The nearest place that sold coffee was just a short walk, but Jesse made pleasant conversation the whole way, even continuing to flirt a little bit. Not that Hanzo minded, of course, but there were a lot of questions on the forefront of his mind and he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to ask them.

“So if you didn’t drop the class, where on earth have you been?”

“Ah, well, I mean, it was only syllabus week. Ain’t much that happens syllabus week so I didn’t really feel like going.”

“I take it you skip often then?” Hanzo didn’t know if this was Jesse’s first semester or not. He couldn’t imagine it was, based on how familiar his lunchmates were with him.

“Only when I feel like it. So, yes.” Jesse shot him a grin that made Hanzo roll his eyes again.

“That’s not a very good foundation to build your academic career on, you know.”

“Aw, come on, darlin’. Don’t lecture me about that shit. I know what I’m doin’. Straight A student, I swear.” He joking put a hand on his heart and raised the other in the air as if to prove his point.

Hanzo raised an eyebrow, he did not take Jesse to be the studious type. “And I take it you are a business major as well, yes?”

“Yup.” He popped the p for emphasis.

“Forgive me if this is rude, but you really don’t look like one.”

That made Jesse pause in his walking before busting out into laughter. “You’re somthin’ else, Shimada. Let’s just say that this ain’t my first rodeo and that business is the only thing interestin’ me right now.”

The line for the coffee stand wasn’t very long. Thankfully, they were only about three people in line by the time they got there.

“So, this is your return to school? Did you already receive a degree but decide to go after business instead, or did you drop out and decide to come back?” Hanzo almost hoped it was the latter so they would have something else in common.

“I’ve already got a degree. I just like learnin’ things, so I wanted to come back.”

“Oh, that is interesting. I have not heard of anyone who went back to university for knowledge’s sake alone.” Hanzo couldn’t say that he would ever consider doing anything like that, but he certainly thought Jesse was admirable for doing so.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, darlin’, but I’m kind of a special case on all fronts.” He winked at him again, which reminded Hanzo of his earlier observation about Jesse’s eye color.

Before he could comment on it, however, they reached the front of the line.

“Get anything you want. Don’t worry ‘bout the price or nothin’.”

Hanzo did not consider himself especially adventurous so he just ordered what he usually got: something much too sweet to be palatable to most people.

“Will that be all?” The bored student who was working the stand asked as they brought up the total on the order.

“That’ll be all.” Jesse handed them his card and Hanzo watched as he added a generous tip that was almost twice the price of the coffee. He clearly didn’t have the budget of most college students.

“Are you not going to get anything?” Hanzo asked, even though the purchase had already been finalized.

“I don’t actually like coffee, but I’m more than happy to get you some.” He gave him another smile that made Hanzo’s chest feel warm as the cashier handed the card back to him. “You got any more classes today?”

They started to walk away from the coffee stand, Hanzo taking tiny sips from his still much-too-hot drink.

“No, that was my last one for the day. You?”

“Nah, I still got one more.” They came to a stop in front of a bench that looked like it had seen better days and sat down. “It ain’t for another hour though, and seein’ as I’m lucky enough to be talkin’ with such a sweet fella, I might even skip,” he teased, followed by another wink.

Hanzo looked closely at Jesse’s eyes, one more time, making sure they were indeed now gold before accidentally making a fool of himself. “Did you get contacts?”

Jesse was caught off-guard by the question. “What’d’ya mean?”

“I mean your eyes were black. I know they were, and now they’re gold. Did you specifically wear black contacts on the first day of class?” Hanzo snorted in laughter. “Forgive me, but I didn’t think you were the edgy type.”

Instead of laughing at it, like Hanzo thought he would do, Jesse just looked flustered. “I- uh, aw shit, I just remembered I promised Gabe I’d call him after class today. Sorry, Hanzo. I’m gonna have to call our little hang out short. I’ll see ya around.”

And before Hanzo even knew it, he was sitting alone, still holding onto a full cup of coffee.

“What the fuck.”

-

Hanzo fell into a routine. Well, as much of a routine as could be had with his unpredictable mother.

Over the course of the next week, he found himself very much looking forward to his afternoons. Whenever he had imagined what life would be like in America, he never thought he would have found so many people to hang out with this quickly. Lunches were spent with Fareeha, Angela, and Satya, and the precious time before and after his business class were spent with Jesse. Even Reyes had stopped his glares and now gave him more studying looks than anything.

Small talk with Jesse came so easily. Hanzo had never considered himself much of a conversationalist, but Jesse was so good at keeping the talk going that even the most banal of topics became fun to discuss.

The more time he spent with Jesse, the more Hanzo began to wonder why he had been warned to stay away from him. There was nothing about the cowboy that triggered his usual alarms. He was just a genuinely friendly guy. Well, he was maybe a little odd. Jesse had a habit of randomly running off. There was the obviously fake phone call excuse when Hanzo had asked about his contacts. and one day, they had been chatting outside after class and the sun began to peek through the clouds. Hanzo remembered sighing in relief. Sunshine was so rare in Spoons that he learned to savor all that he could get. Jesse, on the other hand, looked up at the sky, scowled at the change in weather, pulled his hat down further over his face, and mumbled something about another obviously fake excuse before jogging away.

Hanzo had just sighed as he watched him go, resolving himself to never understanding the eternal mystery that was Jesse McCree.

-

“Hanzo, you have to stop hanging around McCree.”

“I have not seen any reason why I should,” Hanzo said with a sigh. As soon as he sat down, he knew the three wanted to tell him something. Fareeha had been the one who finally spoke up after an extended period of stiff silence. “Besides,” he continued. “I am not ‘hanging around’ Jesse. We only idly chat. I would hardly consider us acquaintances. What is it that you don’t like about him, anyway? Is he dangerous or something?”

“Yes.”

Oh. Hanzo had not been expecting that. Jesse didn’t seem dangerous at all. Weird, yes, but not dangerous.

“Is he…” Hanzo swallowed around his words, trying to imagine Jesse as anything other than the kind, strange man he had shown himself to be. “Like a predator?”

“He’s not _that_ kind of dangerous,” Angela jumped in.

“Quite the opposite actually,” Satya mumbled into her large cup of tea.

Hanzo was beginning to wonder if there would ever be a moment in his life again where he wouldn’t be hopelessly confused. “Then what-“

“Just trust us, Hanzo.” Fareeha placed one of her hands on his and looked him dead in the eye, no trace of insincerity in her face. “You don’t have to stop talking to him altogether, but be careful about how much time you spend around him. You’re our friend now. We care about you.”

Slowly, he looked at all of them, taking in their serious expressions, before nodding his head in concession. “Very well. I trust you.”

“Good.” She took her hand back and immediately returned to her usual smile, launching into an irrelevant conversation topic that had Angela groaning and Satya almost choking on her tea.

While they spoke, Hanzo decided that he would only talk to Jesse before class and not give him the opportunity to keep him around afterwards.

That same day, he enacted his plan. Jesse greeted him with his usual easy smile, and they talked for the few minutes before the professor started the class. As soon as it ended, Hanzo gave an excuse about needing to be home as soon as possible and walked away before Jesse could protest.

He continued this for the rest of the week, and it worked. It felt a little satisfyingly ironic, that _he_ was the one who was giving the excuses to leave now. At least his excuses were actually good. He felt a little bad about abandoning Jesse, but if what his friends said were true, then he shouldn’t be giving this man the idea that he wants to be friends, as much as he would have liked to have been.

The hardest part was trying to ignore the sad look on Jesse’s face every time he rushed out.

-

“Oh no! I got ‘Sorry’,” Murasaki frowned as she looked at the card she just pulled.

It was a Saturday night and Hanzo and his mother were playing a board game on the floor in front of the fire place, trying to ward off the cold dreariness of the weather outside, steaming mugs of tea sitting beside them.

“Mother, that’s good. You get to knock one of my pieces back to start.” A small smile found its way to his face. His mother’s antics were very endearing.

“But that’s mean.”

“That’s how you win.”

“Can I just draw a new card? I don’t want to send one of your pieces all the way back.” Her frown turned into a pout as she analyzed the board. Hanzo had a piece that was very close to his home and knocking that piece would set him back terribly.

“How about this: you can hit this one out,” he pointed to the only other piece he had on the board. “It is closer to your home anyway and it will not be as ‘mean’ as hitting my other piece.” He was more than happy to point out the compromise. His mother may not care very much about winning, but unfortunately, he inherited his father’s competitiveness.

“Okay, I can do that.” She picked up one of her pieces and gently replaced Hanzo’s with hers. “I’m sorry,” she said as she handed the blue piece of plastic to him.

He gave a soft laugh as he took it from her. “Now you know why the game is called that.”

Her pout disappeared as she laughed along with him. “I suppose you’re right.”

They played a couple more rounds, and as Hanzo finished up a turn, he noticed his mother staring at him. It wasn’t a hard stare, but it seemed like she was trying to assess him for something.

Before he could ask what she was trying to see, she said, “I wish I could see your colors.”

“My-? I’m blue.” He gestured toward the board. “Though, I suppose that is not what you meant, is it?”

She gently shook her head but did not elaborate. In fact, she changed the topic completely, as if forgetting she brought it up in the first place.

“Have you made any friends since last I asked?”

“Oh. Yes. The nice people from before. Satya, Fareeha, and Angela. I eat lunch with them occasionally.”

“Well that’s good.” She drew another card and did as it told her. “I am glad that you are making friends now. Have you been on any dates yet?”

Hanzo had to bite back a snort. “Of course not.”

“Well why not?”

“There is no one I would _want_ to date.” _Except for maybe-_

“You should go out some time,” she said with motherly encouragement. “Not necessarily on dates, but with your friends! You say you eat lunch with them but you should have fun outside of campus.”

He opened his mouth to protest but Murasaki beat him to the punch.

“I will be fine. I am not completely incompetent, you know.”

“I know,” he said softly, sighing as he did so.

“Then stop worrying and enjoy life, Hanzo. You are young and have lived with sadness for far too long. You should let yourself have this.”

“Okay, mother. I will,” he promised.

He thought about what she said as they finished up the game. He did deserve a little happiness, didn’t he?

Once they had put the game away, they continued to sit in front of the fire and drink their tea, talking about nothing of importance, just enjoying each other’s company.

But Hanzo had a question he had been wanting to ask since moving to America, so he waited until there was a lull in the conversation. The two had trailed off, staring at the dancing flames in front of them.

“Mother?”

“Hm?”

“Why, of all places, did you move to Spoons? What’s here that made you decide you wanted to live here?”

“Ah.” She tilted her head slightly, continuing to watch the fire. “The only answer I can give you is that it felt right. It drew me in. It wasn’t that I chose Spoons so much as it was that Spoons chose me.”

He didn’t quite know kind of an answer he was expecting to get, but in hindsight, he realized he should have expected that.

They sat in silence for a few more beats before Murasaki continued.

“There is a high concentration of colors that I have never seen before here. This town is not normal, but I cannot say why. It is for this reason that it makes me feel… comfortable.” Murasaki seemed to relax more with every word she said, as if she was getting something off of her chest. “People still think I am weird here, but they do not question it as much. They accept me for who I am instead of trying to change me. Yes, this town is strange, but so am I. I feel at home here.”

Hanzo turned to face her just as she finally tore her gaze from the fire to look at him, absolutely beaming.

“And now you’re here too, I have everything I could ever need.”

Murasaki’s smile was infectious and Hanzo leaned forward until he could place a small kiss on his mother’s head. She meant everything to him. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I think it is time for us to go to bed now.”

As if on cue, his mother yawned, stretching her arms toward the ceiling. “Good idea.”

He took her empty mug from her and stood up to go put them away in the kitchen. When he came back, his mother was pulling herself up to her feet, half asleep already. She padded over to where he stood in the entrance to the hall and pulled him into a tight hug.

“You know I love you, right, Hanzo?”

He wrapped his arms around her in return and held her close to his chest.

“Yes. I love you too, mother,” he muttered into her hair.

She pulled away with one more smile before heading off to bed.

“Goodnight!”

Hanzo knew from the instant he left Hanamura that he would have no regrets about moving, and it was little moments like these, when he felt completely and utterly content, that he was reminded just how much this was true.

“Goodnight.”


	3. Spotlight (Twilight Mix)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you doing this Friday?” Hanzo asked as he and Jesse walked to get coffee after class. 
> 
> “I’m usually not up to much. Why?” Jesse shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning down slightly to give Hanzo a grin. “You wantin’ to do somethin’?”
> 
> “There’s this party that I was invited to, and I wanted to know if you would like to come as well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **CONTENT WARNING** for nonconsensual drug use and mentions of past abuse! Nothing bad happens as a result of these things and there is nothing graphic, just wanted to warn y'all! Love you!

_This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening._

The streetlamps half-illuminated the man’s path as he sprinted down the sidewalk, clutching onto his arm that he was certain was broken.

Someone- no, some _thing_ was chasing him. He had barely managed to get away after he was thrown against a wall so hard, he could hear the snap of his arm as it shattered.

He spared a glance behind him to see if he was still being followed, but took no relief in seeing nothing.

He needed to get to safety. But where was safe? The _thing_ seemed to be everywhere. He kept looking behind him, thinking that maybe, with each turn, that would be the time _it_ would be there.

The roar of his heart was deafening in his ears, and he didn’t dare slow down as he ran, his only refuge in each small oasis of light.

One more glance over his shoulder revealed nothing once again, but this time, when he looked back ahead, _it_ was suddenly right in front of him.

The man tripped over his own feet trying to stop, tumbling to the ground and coming to a stop at the feet of the _thing_.

_It_ was tall and menacing, the light from overhead casting _its_ entire being in shadow.

The _thing_ gave a dark chuckle and took a step closer to the man.

With no time to get to his feet, the man scrambled backwards on his hands and knees and away from the _thing_ as much as possible.

“Wh-what do you want?!” He cried desperately.

The _thing_ crouched down next to the man and grabbed a hold of the front of his shirt with the one and only hand he had.

“Remember Zoe?” He asked, peering at the man from underneath a cowboy hat. The southern drawl did nothing to take away from the intimidating growl the _thing_ spoke with.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He knew exactly what _it_ was talking about. The man grabbed hold of the _thing’s_ hand with both of his, trying in vain to get _it_ to release _its_ grip.

The _thing_ only gripped tighter, pulling the man up with inhuman strength and once again slamming him against a wall, the brick of the building cutting painfully into his back.

“Well you better start rememberin’, because she sure as fuck ain’t never gonna forget you.”

With one last bestial growl, the _thing_ brought _its_ teeth down on the man’s neck, draining him of all of his blood.

-

Hanzo made good on his promise to his mother. He hung out with Fareeha, Angela, and Satya more often than just at lunch. They still mostly kept their hang outs to campus, but they had started to branch out a little bit; getting coffee or commandeering one of the volleyball nets that were set up outside of the honors dorms.

It probably wasn’t what Murasaki had in mind, but it was much more than what Hanzo was used to. It wasn’t different in a bad way, he had just never had friends outside of his father’s network of powerful families. The mundaneness of it all was a learning process.

When Fareeha invited him to go on a picnic with them at the Overwatch Wildlife Sanctuary, he had to fight his automatic instinct to say no.

Which was how he found himself in Angela’s car as she slowly navigated the rough road leading to the sanctuary, each bump reminding him why he hated car rides. Satya didn’t seem to mind, having taken this road many times to get to work, she was only focused on her phone.

Fareeha had been at work earlier that day and was already at the sanctuary waiting for them.

“I’m so excited for you to see the sanctuary, Hanzo!” Angela said excitedly, dodging a rather large root sticking out from the torn-up pavement. “It is our home away from home! Whenever we are not in classes, we mostly spend our time here. It is not too much further now. Once we go around this curve here, we should see it.”

Hanzo let Angela prattle on as she drove, staring out the window and watching as the trees grew taller the further they went.

“Oh, there’s Fareeha!” Angela’s voice grabbed his attention away from their surroundings and towards the massive building they were pulling up to. Fareeha was standing just outside, right underneath a large silver circle that he had come to recognize as the Overwatch logo. She waved to them enthusiastically as they found a place to park. There were a couple of other cars in the small parking lot, but not as many as Hanzo thought there would be given the sanctuary’s reputation.

Fareeha met them at the car, opening her girlfriend’s door for her and hardly waiting for her to step out before leaning down to give her a small kiss. Fresh off of her shift, Fareeha was still dressed in her uniform: simple khakis with the Overwatch logo embroidered into the breast pocket and right shoulder sleeve.

“So, did you guys bring the stuff?” She asked as Hanzo and Satya also stepped out of the car.

“Of course we did. It wouldn’t be a picnic without it, now would it?” Satya moved around to the trunk to open it and start unloading the supplies, handing a rather large blanket off to Hanzo.

Angela and Fareeha came around to help too, grabbing the basket and jugs of juice.

“This is your first time here, right, Hanzo?” Fareeha asked, looping her arm with her girlfriend’s.

He nodded and looked back up at the building. It seemed old, but well taken care of, its exterior built with a certain rustic charm. It reminded Hanzo of a fancy ski lodge he had been to in Switzerland.

“Yes. You will have to show me around.”

“We can’t take food inside of the research center, so we can’t give you the grand tour today, but you’ll definitely have to come back. We’ll give you the full VIP experience.” She shot him a smile before beginning to walk to the left of the large building, still arm in arm with Angela.

Hanzo followed close behind, especially as the three women headed past the research center and into the woods behind it.

“Are you sure Jack won’t find out?” Angela asked softly once they were several yards into the forest.

“He won’t, stop worrying,” Fareeha reassured.

“Wait. We aren’t doing anything illegal, are we?” Hanzo didn’t want his first time on the Overwatch Wildlife Sanctuary to come to a sudden, terrible end because they dragged him into something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.

Fareeha turned around and gave him a mischievous smile, never faltering in her stride, as if she had the path perfectly memorized. “Civilians aren’t allowed past the research center, but that’s where all the best picnic places are, so we’re making an exception.”

“If we get caught, just blame Fareeha, that’s what I do,” Satya stage-whispered to him, clearly wanting the others to hear her.

“Hey!”

They continued to walk for another 15 minutes, the three girls offering different facts about the forest and the wildlife it supported, but none so enthusiastic as Fareeha, whom, as Hanzo remembered, wanted to do this as a full-time career even after college.

It was fun, getting to hear all the trivia they had while also taking in the beauty of the trees and other flora around him.

“Now, the pride and joy of Overwatch is the large population of wolves we protect,” Fareeha continued on her current rant. “But don’t worry, they never come this close to the research center.”

“Are you sure?” Hanzo asked warily. “We are quite far from the research center.”

“Yeah, but this place is _huge_. I promise we won’t encounter any.”

Hanzo didn’t understand how she could be so sure, but the others seemed just as confident, so he didn’t let himself worry about it.

They finally came across a clearing where the trees were spaced far enough apart that the overcast sky could be seen above them as they spread their blanket out and set up their picnic.

As they sat down, Hanzo took the opportunity to take a deep breath. The sharp smell of the pines around him had a calming effect that reminded him of a camping trip his brother once dragged him on. He had hated it at the time, but now he only looked back on it in fondness.

“So,” Fareeha’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Any hot new gossip, Satya?”

Hanzo blinked a few times to bring himself back to the present and grabbed a sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap from the top of the pile as Angela poured him some juice.

“Remember Zoe?” Satya said, accepting the juice Angela had poured for her as well.

“Zoe Thompson? Yeah, of course I remember her. Is she okay?”

Satya nodded. “Especially now that you-know-who has ‘disappeared’.” She had to put her cup down beside her so she could use her one arm to put air quotes around the last word, once again making Hanzo very confused.

“No way. For real?” Apparently Fareeha knew what she meant, jaw dropping in disbelief.

“Serves him right,” Angela scoffed, unwrapping her sandwich and taking a bite.

Hanzo sighed. Not knowing what the hell was going on was beginning to get very old. “Serves who right to do what?” He finally asked, exasperated.

Angela gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Hanzo. I keep forgetting that you are still quite new. Zoe is a friend and is also the captain of the women’s basketball team, if you follow any of OU’s sports leagues.”

“Do I look like someone who follows sports?”

She shrugged. “You never know with some people. Anyway, she used to date this guy who ended up being really abusive. It took a lot of effort from a lot of people to finally get her safe and away from him. He almost ruined her.” Righteous fury burned behind Angela’s eyes as she told the story. Hanzo could tell she cared a lot about people and it was very admirable. “But now he has ‘disappeared’ and we will never have to worry about him again!”

Hanzo almost choked on his juice. “Wait, what do you mean by that? Like he’s _gone_ gone? Is he… is he dead?”

The three made non-committal sounds and wouldn’t meet Hanzo’s eye.

“Look,” Satya was the one who finally gave him an answer. “There has been a pattern on campus of the scum of the earth going ‘missing.’ These people are abusers, rapists, and manipulative bastards who don’t deserve a second thought. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

He stared at them with incredulity. “So let me get this straight,” he said, raising his hands in front of him as he spoke. “Spoons, the smallest town I have ever set foot in, has a vigilante? Like from a goddamn comic book?”

Fareeha shoved the rest of her sandwich into her mouth to keep from having to answer, Angela suddenly became very distracted by a bug crawling across the blanket and asked her girlfriend to help identify it, and Satya was mumbling something about being unable to either confirm or deny his claim.

They very clearly knew exactly what was going on, but Hanzo didn’t have time to press any further, as the sound of a vehicle approached them.

It must have meant bad news because the three women immediately went from avoidant to dejected.

“Scheisse.” Angela pinched the bridge of her nose as Fareeha groaned.

“What?” Hanzo asked, looking into the forest toward where the sound was coming from. “Is that bad?”

“It’s our boss,” Satya said with a sigh just as an ATV moved around a tree to come into view.

Its rider was a blond man with a hard expression and a large hat on his head indicating his status among the park rangers.

Hanzo couldn’t believe his luck. This was his first time at the wildlife reserve and now it would probably also be his last.

The man came to a stop right next to their little picnic site and glowered down at the four of them. “Vaswani, Amari, Ziegler, what the hell are you doing bringing a civilian this far out into the forest?”

“He’s with us so he’s safe,” Angela defended while Hanzo tried to avoid eye contact, mortified at being caught like a child with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Doesn’t matter. Pack up and move out. Now.”

Hanzo was already moving to put away some of the supplies, but the three women didn’t seem to budge at all, unafraid of this man who was supposedly their boss.

“Aww, come on, Jack,” Fareeha prodded. “Can’t we finish our picnic? Nothing will happen as long as we’re here, promise.”

“He _is_ in good hands,” Satya offered, backing Fareeha up.

Jack looked between the three but was met with unwavering apathy toward his tough-guy act. Realizing he wasn’t going to win this one, he clenched his jaw and glowered before conceding. “Fine. But you better get the hell out of here as soon as you’re done. Got it?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Fareeha gave him a mocking salute, to which he rolled his eyes.

“And this better not happen again. Understood?”

“I can promise that this exact situation will not happen again,” Angela barely got the sentence out without snickering and Hanzo wondered when they all had gotten this much audacity. Clearly this man held a lot of power in this institution and they were playing him like he was their big brother.

Jack sighed and revved the engine on his ATV before pulling away.

The group watched him leave until they couldn’t see him anymore before speaking again.

“Unfortunate that you had to meet Jack like that,” Angela said to Hanzo. “He’s actually a sweet guy, he just doesn’t always like to show it.”

“Yeah,” Fareeha added. “He likes to put on this ‘tough guy’ act, but really, he’s a big pushover who puts literally everyone else in front of himself.”

“It almost feels bad being able to trick the head ranger into letting you do whatever you want.” Satya shot him a sly smile. “Almost.”

Hanzo sincerely doubted that _he_ would be able to use this trick at all and simply wished to never meet the man again.

They finished their picnic without any further issue, having fun and talking about everything and nothing. Occasionally, Fareeha would shush everyone suddenly just to hear a bird call and identify it for the group.

At one point, Hanzo heard a wolf howling. It sounded very far away and didn’t seem to bother any of the girls, but it still sent a shiver up his spine to know that such a powerful animal was somewhere in the same forest as him.

After the picnic, the girls guided Hanzo back to the research center effortlessly, despite the lack of a clear path or any kind of guiding markers. It astounded him how well the three knew this forest, especially since it all looked the same to him.

The outing ended with him promising to come back to the wildlife reserve soon, and Hanzo couldn’t help but smile, thinking about how proud his mother would be of all the effort he had put in to letting himself have fun with friends.

-

“Hey Hanzo, wait a minute!”

Hanzo kept walking, pretending to not have heard Jesse’s request as he had been doing since the girls had warned him about Jesse, but suddenly the other man was right in front of him, a pleading look on his face.

“Wait. Please? I just want to talk.”

Jesse looked genuinely upset about something, which Hanzo didn’t necessarily want to deal with, but felt like he had to.

He looked around and saw some students milling about a small courtyard with a couple of tables set up, half of them filled with people. It seemed like a good, _public_ place to have a conversation.

“Very well,” Hanzo conceded, leading Jesse over to a table that was empty.

They sat down across from each other, neither saying anything right away. Jesse was looking at him like he was trying to study him but was failing. It reminded Hanzo very much of how his mother sometimes looked at him.

“Is there something-“ Hanzo started to ask, but Jesse spoke up at the same time.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Excuse me?” The last time Hanzo had been asked a question like that, he was 17 and on the worst date he had ever been on.

Jesse looked a little sheepish at being called out for his boldness. “Sorry, I can usually read people like a damn picture book, but you, darlin’? I have no clue what you’re thinkin’ and it’s maddenin’.”

It took Hanzo a few minutes to realize his mouth was hanging open slightly, trying to think of an appropriate reply.

“If I am being honest, I am mostly thinking about how weird you are.”

Trying to hide an embarrassed smile, Jesse tilted his hat down and gave a small laugh. “Guess I can’t blame you for that one. Gabe always told me I ain’t got the most tact when it comes to conversin’. I guess you don’t gotta tell me what you’re thinkin’, but is it alright if I tell you what I’m thinkin’?”

A refusal was already on the tip of Hanzo’s tongue, but when Jesse looked back up at him with warm brown eyes and that damn easy smile that always managed to get Hanzo feeling a few degrees warmer than usual, he couldn’t help but relent.

“Fine. What is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“For starters, it’s pretty obvious that you’ve been avoidin’ me for what, to me, looks like no damn reason. Which is a right shame because I thought we were gettin’ along like peaches and cream. So, if you could just tell me one thing,” Jesse looked at him pleadingly. “What did I do to deserve your cold shoulder? I’d like to make it right, if I can.”

Without thinking about it, Hanzo let out a snort.

“Sorry, I am not laughing at you,” he explained as soon as he saw Jesse’s face fall. “I am only laughing because if I was truly giving you my ‘cold shoulder’, you would not have been able to get close enough to me to ask me to sit down.”

One of Jesse’s eyebrows shot up. “Well then what the hell would you call what you’ve been pullin’ on me for the past couple weeks?”

Hanzo thought for a second about feigning ignorance, but quickly realized there was no point.

“I was told to be careful of the time I spend around you,” he said plainly.

Jesse groaned and slumped back into his seat. “Of-fuckin’-course. Let me guess who told you that. Was it Ziegler? Actually- no, I change my guess. It was Vaswani, wasn’t it.” He scowled as he made his guesses, crossing his arms over his chest.

Hanzo grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the man across from him. “You know, if you’re trying to get me to like you, you are doing a terrible job of it. I do not take too kindly to people who are rude to my friends.” Where was the charming cowboy who had offered to get him coffee? The man in front of Hanzo was getting on his nerves.

Realizing he messed up, Jesse groaned again and put his face in his hands. “I’m real sorry. It’s just that they don’t like me all that much, and this wouldn’t be the first time they intervened on me makin’ a friend. And I ain’t sayin’ that in a mean way, I don’t want you to think they’re assholes or nothin’, we just…” Jesse took his face out of his hands and looked around, fishing for the right words to say. “Don’t agree on a lot of things.”

“Then answer this one question.” Hanzo was tired of people being nothing but vague. “Why, in your opinion, did they warn me that you are dangerous?”

Jesse looked shocked at first, but then he gave a nervous laugh. “Okay, now I don’t have tons to say against that one. I’m a lot stronger than I look, darlin’, and I’ve been in my fair share of… well let’s just call ‘em fights. They’re probably just worried I might snap on you.” He raised his prosthetic in the air and placed his other hand on his heart. “But I swear on my life that I will never hurt a single hair on your head.”

Hanzo wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. His immediate reaction was disbelief. After all, he could have just been saying that to make Hanzo trust him.

While Hanzo was taking his time to gather his thoughts, Jesse took his silence as permission to continue speaking.

“This may be a bit embarrassin’ to say, but I guess now is as good a time to say it as any,” he nervously scratched the back of his neck as he spoke, accidentally bumping his hat into his eyes as he did so.

Hanzo cursed himself for how adorable he found the other man to be.

“I feel drawn to you, in a way,” Jesse continued. “As if fate actually existed. I know my actions when we first met seem contradictory to this, but I think you’re somethin’ real special. I haven’t quite figured out why, yet, but I just have this feelin’. And I ain’t sayin’ that we have to spend every wakin’ minute together, but I’d at least like to talk with you after class like we’d been doin’. I liked that, and I thought you did too. If you don’t, then that’s fine, I promise I’ll leave you alone. I just wanted to explain how I was feelin’ to you.”

There wasn’t a single trace of dishonesty in Jesse’s voice. Any worries Hanzo had previously held about the other man slowly began to dissipate.

He cleared his throat and looked Jesse in the eye, taking note of the cowboy’s look of anticipation. “You’re right.”

Jesse’s eyebrows shot up his face. “I am?”

“Yes. I did enjoy speaking with you. You are easy to talk to, which is rare for me.” He finally cracked and gave Jesse a small smile. “I have chosen to trust you. Don’t disappoint me.”

Hanzo’s heart fluttered as Jesse outright beamed at him.

“You mean it? You just made my day, darlin’.” Excited, Jesse put his flesh hand on the table, reaching out for one of Hanzo’s hands before hesitating. “Could I-?”

Before Hanzo could respond to Jesse’s implied question, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. At some point, the sun must have begun to peak through the clouds, because a beam had fallen on them, making something shine into Hanzo’s eyes. When he looked down, he realized Jesse’s hand was covered in glitter and shimmering in the sunlight.

“A little heavy handed with the body glitter today?” Hanzo asked, teasingly raising an eyebrow.

“Huh?” Jesse looked down and immediately jumped up when he realized what Hanzo had been talking about. “Oh, I- uh- was just workin’ on a project and spilled some glitter, that’s all. Um-“ He started backing up away from the table where Hanzo was still seated. “Speaking of, I totally forgot that I gotta finish that up before… Yeah, I have to go. I love speakin’ with you, Han. I’ll talk to you later!”

Hanzo didn’t even have a chance to comment on the nickname before Jesse was, once again, gone.

Between the strange questions and the confusing actions, Hanzo was once again reminded of how similar Jesse was to his mother.

-

**Fareeha [5:26pm]: Heyyyy hanzo. I’ve got a question for you**

**Fareeha [5:26pm]: And you can say no if you want**

**Fareeha [6:03pm]: Hanzooooo**

Hanzo had just finished putting away the leftovers from dinner when he realized he had three missed messages. He sighed and opened the conversation between him and Fareeha, already dreading what she was wanting to ask him.

**[6:11pm]: Sorry, I just got these. What is it you wanted to ask?**

**Fareeha [6:12pm]: Okay so!**

**Fareeha [6:13pm]: Angie, Satya, and I were all invited to this party on friday that’s being hosted by our friend Nick, and she said we could invite you to come too if you wanted**

**Fareeha [6:13pm]: I figured a party wasn’t really your scene, which is why I said you can absolutely say no if you want, but I think it’d be fun! So what do you say?**

With a sigh, Hanzo tried to weigh the pros and cons. Fareeha was right. A college party was most definitely not his usual scene, that was more Genji’s speed. He could remember several occasions where he had to pick his brother up at some older kid’s party that he had managed to sneak into. Hanzo however, had never been to a party before, afraid of what his father would do if he found out.

But Sojiro wasn’t there to police his actions anymore, and that thought filled Hanzo with giddy delight. He was always forgetting that he didn’t have to worry about appearances anymore. He could make decisions based on his own desires now, and thinking about getting a little wild for the first time in his life actually sounded surprisingly appealing.

**[6:19pm]: I think I’d love to go. Send the time and place when you have them.**

Hanzo could almost hear his brother’s voice in his head as he sent the message. _Wow, anija. Maybe it is possible to remove the stick up your ass. I guess miracles really do happen._

He smiled to himself and set his phone to the side to begin on his homework, already trying to figure out what he was going to wear.

-

“What are you doing this Friday?” Hanzo asked as he and Jesse walked to get coffee after class.

“I’m usually not up to much. Why?” Jesse shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning down slightly to give Hanzo a grin. “You wantin’ to do somethin’?”

“There’s this party that I was invited to, and I wanted to know if you would like to come as well.”

Hanzo could have sworn Jesse almost looked disappointed at his answer as his smile was replaced by a look of confusion. “You’re invitin’ me to a party? Can I ask why?”

“Well if you must know, it’s because I will only know three other people there. One of which, I assume is not even going to come, and I am afraid the other two will most likely abandon me to make out in a corner.” Hanzo turned to look at him as they took their place in line at the coffee stand. “You are the only other person I enjoy spending time with. You don’t have to come, but I would like it if you did.”

Jesse’s smile returned as Hanzo finished speaking. “Well, shucks, darlin’. If that’s the case, then I’d be happy to keep you company. May I ask who’s hostin’, though?”

“Someone I have never met before. I believe Fareeha said her name was Nick. I do not know anything else about her.”

Almost imperceptibly, as soon as Hanzo said the host’s name, Jesse seemed to become nervous, but was doing his best to hide it.

“Ah, I think I know which Nick you’re talkin’ about. I’ll try my best to be there, but unfortunately, I can’t guarantee nothin’.”

Hanzo shrugged. “That’s fine. I suspect I will not be there for very long anyway. I have never been to a party before and I do not know what to expect, so I am planning on taking it slow and bailing early if I don’t like it.”

“Smart,” Jesse nodded. “Well, I’ll see if Gabe needs me for anythin’ that day and maybe I’ll meet you there. How does that sound?”

“Sounds perfect.”

They talked for the next hour, Hanzo sipping on the coffee Jesse had graciously paid for again, until Jesse had to head off for his next class. With a tip of his hat and a wave goodbye, Jesse left Hanzo alone with his thoughts, hoping beyond all hope that Jesse would be able to come with him.

-

For a town as small as Spoons, Hanzo did not expect so many people to show up for a party. There was barely any room to move in the small house as music blared from large speakers in the main room.

Almost immediately, both of Hanzo’s predictions came true; Satya texted him that she decided not to come, and after getting drinks for the three of them, Fareeha dragged Angela out to dance with her. She gestured for Hanzo to follow, but he declined, opting to stand awkwardly against a wall.

Hanzo sipped on his drink, still on the lookout for Jesse. The cowboy was late, and with each minute that passed, Hanzo grew more and more disappointed, knowing he probably was not going to show.

Hanzo was almost through his first drink, feeling the alcohol beginning to warm his body, when a man he had never met decided to sidle up next to him, much too close for Hanzo’s comfort.

“Hey, I’m Chris.” He had to shout to be heard over the music. “What’s your name?”

Hanzo tried to take a step away from where Chris was practically leaning into him, but the other man just took a step closer in response.

“Hanzo,” he said simply, trying to drop the hint that he did not want to engage this man in a conversation.

“Well Hanzo, did you really come all by yourself tonight? It would be a crime for someone as pretty as you to be all alone.”

Hanzo tried to take another step away to no avail. “I am not alone.” Chris gave him the creeps, and Hanzo really didn’t want to give him any more information than necessary.

“Aw, well sounds like a lousy date if they abandoned you.”

Chris just kept creeping closer and closer. Hanzo was about to tell him to fuck off when a blessedly familiar voice cut through the music.

“Not abandoned, just late. Sorry, darlin’. I got caught up with something. Is this man botherin’ you?”

Hanzo heaved a sigh of relief as Jesse came to stand next to him, making Chris finally back off.

“Jesse, would you like to come with me to get another drink?” Hanzo turned to face Jesse, putting his back to the creep.

“Sure thing!”

The two of them walked into the kitchen, leaving Chris behind. It was quieter there than the main room, but not by a lot. Hanzo refilled his cup with whatever red-ish drink was in a large dispenser and went to grab another cup for Jesse.

“Would you like anything?” He asked.

“Nah,” Jesse declined, looking around at all the guests and wrinkling his nose as if he smelled something rotten. “I’m drivin’.”

Hanzo took a sip of his new drink and had to fight off a cough at how strong the drink was. “Are you okay? You seem anxious. You know you did not have to come if you did not want-“

“No, no!” Jesse quickly interrupted him. “I’m happy to be here with you. Sorry, just smells like wet dog in here.”

Trying to smell what Jesse smelled, Hanzo took a deep breath. “I don’t-“

“Anyway, are you enjoyin’ yourself so far? At least, aside from the dude who looked like he wanted to take a bite outta you?”

Hanzo snorted and slipped into their routine of easy conversation.

They talked for a quite a bit, eventually moving into a room that didn’t see as much foot traffic as the kitchen. Hanzo felt himself relax finally, and as he finished his second drink, he felt giggly and a little flirty, leaning against Jesse as he laughed maybe a little too hard at a joke the cowboy had told.

“Damn, this drink was a lot stronger than I thought it would be.”

Jesse laughed at him and was about to say something when a woman came storming up to them.

“McCree!” She angrily poked him in his chest. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Jesse held his hands up defensively. “Well hey now, as a matter of fact, I was invited.”

“Yeah? And who the _hell_ invited _you_?!”

“I did.” Hanzo stepped in between the two, wobbling only slightly from how tipsy he was.

The woman’s mouth opened in shock. “Ah. I see. You’re Angie and Fareeha’s friend, Hanzo, right?”

“Yes, that’s me, and this is _my_ friend, Jesse. And who might you be?”

Jesse put a hand on his shoulder, trying to get Hanzo to stand down. “Darlin’ that’s the host.”

Hanzo didn’t really care. If Nick had a problem with Jesse, then he had a problem with her.

She narrowed her eyes and looked back and forth between Hanzo and Jesse. “McCree, can I speak to you in private?”

“No,” Hanzo answered for Jesse. He was finally having a good time and wasn’t about to let someone take Jesse away from him again.

“Han, hon, I’m sure it won’t take that long,” Jesse reassured him. “Right, Nick?”

“McCree can only stay if I talk to him first,” she said resolutely, crossing her arms over her chest.

Hanzo gave a frustrated sigh before conceding. “Fine! I will be here when you are done.”

“Sounds good, darlin’. I’ll be right back, promise.” Jesse stepped away to follow Nick out of the room, shooting a wink behind him at Hanzo as he did.

The wink sent warmth flooding through Hanzo. If he had to take a guess, he was probably blushing deeply. He was _quite_ tipsy.

He stood and waited for about 5 minutes, staring into his empty cup, wishing he had another one, when a full cup was suddenly passed into his hands.

“Huh?” He looked up to see who had given him the drink and he groaned inwardly when he saw that it was Chris again.

“Thought you might want another drink,” he said with a smile that he probably thought was charming, but was actually just creepy.

Hanzo silently took the cup, grateful to have more alcohol if he had to try and deal with Chris.

“So where did your date go? I thought he just got here,” Chris asked, once again leaning close to Hanzo.

“He’ll be right back. Fuck off,” he bit out, taking a sip of the new drink. It was different than the last one. It more bitter than he expected, but a drink was a drink.

Chris did not, in fact, fuck off. He kept trying to engage Hanzo in a conversation, but Hanzo ignored him, having nothing better to do than take gulps of his drink, hoping Jesse would return soon.

The drink must have been _much_ stronger than the last one he had, because it did not take long for him to start to feel extremely nauseous.

“Hey, are you alright?” Chris asked, grabbing Hanzo’s arm to steady him as he swayed on his feet.

“I donnfeel so good… I donnthink I should drinkmore.” One second, Hanzo felt fine, and then the next, he felt absolutely _horrible._ The room started to spin and Hanzo’s limbs felt like they were made of jelly. He slumped against Chris so he wouldn’t fall down with how dizzy he felt.

“Here, let me take that.” Chris took the cup out of Hanzo’s hands so he wouldn’t drop it. “Let’s get you outside and get some fresh air.”

Hanzo didn’t want to go outside, especially not with Chris. He was waiting on Jesse. But he couldn’t seem to get any part of him to work. He couldn’t make his tongue work to protest, he couldn’t make his legs work to go in the opposite direction, he couldn’t even make his brain work to have any thoughts other than panic.

It was like he was watching his life through a movie. He had no control as Chris took him outside and dragged his limp body to a dark corner, resting him against the outside wall of the house.

Hanzo could barely keep his eyes open, but he saw Chris. He saw him _smiling_.

“Hey, beautiful. Now that it’s just you and me, we can start to have some _real_ fun.”

Chris put his hands on Hanzo’s waist and his panic rose as he realized what was happening.

Hanzo could barely recall the rest of the evening.

He remembered being pressed up against the wall when Chris was ripped off of him and suddenly Jesse was there, carefully easing Hanzo down to the cool grass.

“I’m so sorry, darlin’. I shouldn’t have left you alone. Everythin’ is gonna be alright, I promise. I’ll get you help, but first, I gotta take care of this slime, okay?”

Hanzo couldn’t respond, but hearing Jesse’s voice filled him with relief.

His eyes kept shutting of their own accord, so he couldn’t see what Jesse meant by ‘taking care’ of Chris.

The next thing he knew, he was being lifted up into Jesse’s arms. He managed to crack his eyes open just slightly, but all he could see was blood. Jesse was covered in blood. The thought should have frightened him, but he didn’t have any time to process it as he was once again thrust into unconsciousness.

The only other thing he remembered from the rest of the night was voices.

“Why the hell did you bring him here?”

Hanzo didn’t know that voice.

“Because he was _drugged,_ Moira. I would have taken him home otherwise.”

But he _did_ know that one: _Jesse!_

He still couldn’t move, couldn’t open his eyes, couldn’t speak. He honestly couldn’t tell if this was real, or just a dream.

“What if he saw! You’re putting us in danger because of your stupid crush!”

Hanzo slipped back under, only breaching consciousness one more time, when a third voice joined the other two.

“What is he doing here?”

The voice was hauntingly familiar, like something out of a memory. Hanzo didn’t know why, but it made him feel incredibly sad _._ But before he could place it, he fell into blackness one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to [follow me](https://savethebees-writing.tumblr.com/) for updates and such


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